AAS 290 examines social media and BLM movement – The Michigan Daily

When LSA freshman Lamees Abdel Sattar first began work on her research project for her class, Afroamerican and African Studies 290, she originally chose to focus on exploring how the Black Lives Matter movement built solidarity. The project requires students to collect social media data to analyze the effect of social media in the Black Lives Matter movement.

Three days before the project was due, however, Abdel Sattar decided she wanted to shift her focus to researching disparities in health outcomes for Black women, specifically in maternal mortality rates. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Abdel Sattar said she felt supported by her professor, Ashley Crooks-Allen who is also a Dubois-Mandela-Rodney/NCID postdoctoral fellow through her process of choosing a topic to research.

I realized when I was doing (my project originally), it was based more on my own experiences rather than using a different lens to look more into BLM, Abdel Sattar said. I recently changed mine to disparities within health care for Black women and maternal mortality rates. My professor, theyre actually the nicest person ever. The draft of the project was due in three days, and Im like, Professor, is it OK if I completely change what Im doing? I have completely different ideas, and I just want to try something new.

Crooks-Allen designed their section of AAS 290 as a mini-course that explores the Black Lives Matter movement in order to more broadly understand how social media shapes activism. In an interview with The Daily, Crooks-Allen said the analysis of social media is especially important in understanding the Black Lives Matter movement in particular, as its expansion was directly connected to social media. They also explained what their goals for their students are.

I work with students to understand the progression of the movement over time and how social media has impacted the movement and how it has continued to grow in these social media spaces, Crooks-Allen said. Im looking at ways that activism takes place online, as well as how social media is mobilizing force for social movements, and BLM in particular.

For the students final project, Crooks-Allen knew they wanted students to extrapolate findings from social media data. Crooks-Allen wanted students to focus on not only quantitative social media data but also quantitative interview data. In class, they taught students how to conduct interviews by demonstrating the process of writing comprehensive interview questions, as well as allowing time for mock interviews.

It felt vitally important for students to be able to actually talk to people about these issues as theyre happening, Crooks-Allen said. With interviewing, (it is) really important to highlight the importance of storytelling, especially in the Black community. Being able to understand peoples narratives and actually see people who are affected in the work that were doing as researchers, I think is vitally important.

Crooks-Allen said that students took the initiative to write and repeatedly revise their interview questions to make sure they were both concise and came across exactly as intended.

When I was recently reviewing the reflections from the interviewing practice, a lot of students mentioned that they had thought their questions were going to be great questions, Crooks-Allen said. Students that had really long questions, after practicing them, were able to revise their questions in a way that they felt satisfied with, and they were excited to do their interviews.

Lydia Kelow-Bennett, assistant professor of Afroamerican and African Studies, is a mentor to Crooks-Allen. In an interview with The Daily, she said Crooks-Allens teaching style engages students in the classroom while providing them with a wealth of practical skills.

What I really love about Professor Crooks-Allens work is that they really get students involved in the process of qualitative research, Kelow-Bennett said. One of the things that I know for a fact is (AAS 290) is a very interactive class; (Crooks-Allen) actually teaches their students how to do qualitative social media research. It really enriches students interactions with social media.

Abdel Sattar agreed with Kelow-Bennett and said Crooks-Allens engaging teaching style created a positive effect on the classroom environment.

(Class) is always exciting, Abdel Sattar said. Its very discussion-based, but not demanding. The professors actually super good with that by having us in smaller groups. Its so easy to have a good conversation. Everyones so open to learn, and everyone has different backgrounds, so it just creates a good classroom environment.

While conducting her research project on the disparity in maternal mortality rates among different racial groups, Abdel Sattar said she was shocked to learn the historical context behind the misconception that Black people have a higher pain tolerance than people of other races, and how it contributed to the prevalence of medical experiments conducted on Black people.

All of this is very systematic, Abdel Sattar said. The health care role is also connected to the belief that Black people had a lower pain tolerance. During slavery and post-slavery and during Jim Crow, (doctors) would do medical treatments and experiments on Black women without anesthesia. Systematically, theyre less likely to get health care and get support even after slavery, even after Jim Crow, and theyre at such a disadvantage in that rooted bias of them having a higher pain tolerance.

Abdel Sattar said that, although her decision to take the class was originally a spur-of-the-moment choice, she has learned more than she expected.

The class really fosters an environment to learn more, Abdel Sattar said. Im reading more about BLM in a way that I would have never expected, like some of the data I learned, I was like, Wow, I did not know this. I had no idea it could be this extreme. Within class, you get a completely new outlook, and then being able to do my own research project, I got to choose something that I was interested in. I actually wish the class was a full semester. Wed be able to cover so much more content because theres so much information out there.

Daily Staff Reporter Anna Jerolimov can be reached at annajero@umich.edu.

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AAS 290 examines social media and BLM movement - The Michigan Daily